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About this project

Mr. Fiskers is a time-traveling adventure where you must fight your way from the dawn of time to the end of civilization in pursuit of Dr. Cronstrum, a rival inventor who has stolen your time machine and is using it for evil!

Fortunately, you're not alone; you've got your reliable droid, WAD-BOT, and an army of mechanical golems at your disposal!

The game revolves around a lane-based combat system that mixes action and strategy. Like many defense games, you'll start with the basics: building and upgrading units to defend against waves of enemies.

As you complete missions, however, you'll discover a gaggle of gadgets and unlockable skills that let you play a much more active and pivotal role in the battle. Meanwhile, the enemies and boss fights will get more complex, fast-paced, and challenging.

Almost all of these gizmos introduce some sort of new utility or game mechanic; they're not just weapons that let you do a little more damage. As you begin to collect more and more tools, the game begins to feel more like a realtime strategy game than a tower defense.

Check out a few of our favorites from the demo:

The Wrench-A-Rang gadget allows you to repair golems, whack enemies, and interrupt spellcasting. The Wrench-A-Rang also has several upgradable features. For instance, one upgrade lets you activate the wrench by clicking again just as it hits the target, which shocks enemies and gives golems a temporary speed boost.

The Flammable Goo upgrade causes enemies to occasionally explode if they're covered in goo then set on fire. Pair this with the Maker's Fire upgrade, which overheats your Wrench-A-Rang for a few seconds after you repair a brawler-class golem, and get ready to have some fun.

The Wormhole Generator gadget allows you to move things around the field by swapping stuff between two points. This can be used to reposition your army, rearrange obstacles on the field, or mess with enemies.

Your army of golems is divided into four classes, and you'll need to find a balance between all four to secure victory.

Worker golems gather the crystals you need to build more golems, and even though they can't fight, they're a very important part of your army.

Once they're upgraded, worker golems also play very important tactical roles by creating items you can use on the battlefield. For instance, the Mason Golem's pillars can be used as walls and bridges, while the Tinker Golem's whirlybirds allow you to reposition golems and put them in range of flying enemies.

Brawler golems are the meaty front line of your army. They're cheap and sturdy, which makes them perfect for protecting your more expensive and fragile golems.

With some upgrades, different types of brawler golems specialize in handling different types of aggression. For instance, the Golden Golem's magic shield puts a hard limit on how much any single attack can do to it, while the Quake Golem's spike barrage knocks enemies back, preventing them from getting within striking distance in the first place.

Clockwork golems are the biggest guns in your arsenal. The firepower comes at a price, though: clockwork golems are more expensive than brawlers, and they're very fragile.

Upgrading your clockwork golems allows them to specialize in certain types of fights. For instance, the Focus Golem's solar beam aperture can be forced open, dealing massive amounts of damage to a single target at the cost of overheating and taking burn damage. On the other end of the spectrum, the Swarm Golem's mechanical locust drones can chew through hordes of weaker enemies all over the map, becoming stronger with each victim they consume.

Alchemy golems are the special sauce that turns your army into something more than the sum of its parts. They're expensive, but their utility-oriented functions pay for themselves in no time.

Upgrades allow alchemy golems to specialize in different things. The Brew Golem's fermented elixirs are great for healing nearby golems, and if an enemy gets too close, the emergency release valve attack does more damage based on how long the golem has been storing up pressure. The Shroom Golem's assorted fungal attacks can inflict all sorts of debilitating effects on enemies: poisoning them, weighing down flying enemies, or confusing them into attacking each other.

One of the biggest things we're focusing on with Mr. Fiskers is encounter design. Once we've given you time to acclimate to the basic gameplay, each level starts to introduce its own unique mechanics and challenges you'll need to adapt to.

In Chilled to the Bone, falling icicles can form floating platforms for you to build golems on, but they can also land on golems, damaging them.

If you make it through hordes of sabre-toothed tigers and angry mammoths, you'll have to face the level's dual minibosses: Cinnamon and Disco. Cinnamon's loud trumpeting will bring icicles crashing down all over the map, and Disco's vicious attacks and unpredictable jumping can pose a serious threat if he gets too close.

In Rumble in the Jungle, you can whack Bridgevine Roots with your Wrench-A-Rang to form vine bridges over a canyon, making it easier to take out swarms of flapasauruses that fly down the middle of the map. If an enemy ever reaches one of the roots, though, the bridge will collapse, so don't let your guard down!

Assuming you survive the raptor attacks and flocks of flapasauruses, you'll square off against Turkey, an acid-spitting dinosaur with a chip on his shoulder about the hand evolution has dealt him.

After you've completed each mission on story mode, you'll unlock that level's challenge mode. In challenge mode, you're tasked with three special objectives that you must complete simultaneously in order to ace the level.

Even Primordial Soup, the very first level in the game, offers a unique challenge mode. You'll need to hold off enemies that come down lanes where there is no ground to build, and you're only allowed to use worker golems. Since worker golems can't fight, it's completely up to you and your gadgets to fight your way through to the boss, Big Momma.

In challenge mode, Big Momma launches oozelings all over the map when she reaches the water's edge, so you'll need to find a way to hold her back long enough to whittle her down with your Wrench-A-Rang.

Backers at the GAMER tier and up will be treated to a digital download of the game, plus a bunch of other digital goodies like wallpapers, avatars, and maybe some sneak peeks at the music! This includes a DLC-free direct download of the game for both PC and for Mac.

We're also trying to get the game on Steam! You can help us out by voting for us on Greenlight. If we're successful, this package will include a copy of the game on Steam, in addition to the DRM-free downloadable versions.

Savvy supporters will be treated to two in-game gifts: the Duplomatic gadget, and the Chronogear suit for Mr. Fiskers!

The Duplomatic allows you to analyze an enemy on the field and construct mind-controlled clones to fight for you! Sure, the cloning process requires crystals, but you can't put a price on watching bad guys beat each other up!

The Chronogear doesn't just look awesome: it also gives you a little bit more shield strength in story mode! (Not that you're planning on taking any damage, though, right? ;D) Even better, the improved Autohammer and Wrench-A-Rang fly a little bit faster in story mode. Every little bit helps!

Get a leg up on the competition with early access to the game when it's finished, plus access to periodic beta testing builds where you'll be able to try out parts of the game and give us your feedback and ideas!

You know that awesome feeling you get when the delivery guy shows up with a package you ordered? Treat yourself to a physical copy of Mr. Fiskers, and get that warm, fuzzy, Christmas morning feeling!

Plus, you'll still get digital versions of the game as soon as they're available, so you can get a head start while you wait on shipping!

Mr. Fiskers will feature music using the same bizarre, eccentric style as the demo, but with more variety and flavor! If music is as important to you as it is to us, you can snag a copy of the soundtrack in the collector's edition!

We're working with Chris Hurn, the same guy we worked with on Dillo Hills and Dillo Hills 2. Check out some of his awesome music from those games below!

Dillo Hills 2 - Medley

Dillo Hills - Full Score

A big part of this project is giving the whole thing a visual overhaul, and we're already hard at work updating the game's art - one golem, gadget, and level at a time!

The art book / strategy guide combines all of the game's gorgeous art with tips and strategies for the game. Get advice on how to tackle the game's challenge modes, and take a peek behind the scenes with concept art and development stories.

Ever wanted to be part of making a video game? We'd love to make that a reality! We'll work with you to design an enemy that will occasionally spawn from rifts in spacetime throughout the game. It can be a famous historical monster, some brand new beast of your own design, or even a cameo from another game! (As long as you're the author of that game, of course!)

We'll work with you to hammer out all the details, like what the enemy looks like, and how it behaves. We reserve the right to reject ideas that are inappropriate or out of scope for the game, but we'll work hard with you to try to make your idea work. One of the nice things about time travel is that almost nothing is too crazy!

If you're the engineering type, we want to put your gadget in the game! An old-fashioned gatling gun? An anti-gravity field generator? A cloning machine? A nuclear waffle iron? If it's crazy, we want it in the game. Crazy is awesome.

We'll work with you to hammer out all the details, like what the gadget looks like, and how it behaves. We reserve the right to reject ideas that are inappropriate or out of scope for the game, but we'll work hard with you to try to make your idea work.

Secret missions from all around spacetime will be spread out throughout the game, and we want you to help us design one of them! These levels feature fun minigames or mechanics that either replace or augment the standard gameplay, and we want to use your ideas!

Maybe the entire level has to be played with gadgets only, no golems? Or maybe you control WAD-BOT and his secret death laser the entire time while the golems build themselves? Maybe the only way to build golems is to scavenge for robot scraps and piece them together. Or maybe you spend the entire level calling in airstrikes and dropping bombs onto hordes of enemies, because explosions are fun - who knows!

Your level can come from any place and any time period, and it can include a new enemy or two (plus a miniboss version of one of the enemies), which will also appear elsewhere throughout the game.

For this tier, especially, we'll work very closely with you to make sure your minigame is something that can work and is in scope. We're happy to discuss ideas before you make your pledge, so if this is something you're considering, feel free to drop us a message to get the ball rolling!

We reserve the right to reject ideas that are inappropriate or out of scope for the game, but we'll work hard with you to make your idea work.

We want you to help us design an entire secret zone, complete with its own side story, big bad villain, minigame stage, and a gadget reward at the end! Your zone can come from any place and any time period, or you can mix and match levels from all over the place!

The secret zone will include 4 normal levels, which each include a new enemy or two (and a miniboss), plus the level mechanics and challenge modes. You'll also help us design a minigame stage for the zone, and a big boss fight for the final level. To top it all off, you'll get to design a gadget that the player will be rewarded with at the end. It should be something awesome; the player will have to work hard for it!

We'll work with you to hammer out all the details, like what the levels look and sound like, what the enemies and boss fights are like, how the levels behave (especially the minigame level), and how the player should be challenged in the hard modes for each level.

We reserve the right to reject ideas that are inappropriate or out of scope for the game, but we'll work hard with you to make your idea work. Please feel free to message us with your preliminary ideas if you'd like to make sure they're appropriate / in scope before committing to a pledge. We're always happy to talk!

$55,000 - Expanded Soundtrack

Right now, Mr. Fiskers is using some cheeky stock music we licensed for the demo. For the full game, we'll be working with Chris Hurn (the same composer who did Dillo Hills 2) to develop a completely original soundtrack for the game, in the same eccentric style.

Our budget will determine how much of the music we can have written from scratch, and how much will need to be sourced from stock. We'd like to give the game the full treatment: a distinct track for every single level, plus tunes and themes for the interface and story segues. We believe that music is a very important part of video games, so this is our first stretch goal!

$105,000 - 1v1 Multiplayer

RTS games like Starcraft and Age of Mythology are some of the biggest inspirations behind Mr. Fiskers, and we have been building the game with 1v1 multiplayer in mind from the start.

If we reach this stretch goal, you will be able to compete head-to-head against other players, by sending creatures through a wormhole into their world and building golems to protect yours! In this mode, golems, upgrades, and creatures will need to be researched in real time, so you'll need to carefully balance your resources between offense, defense, and research!

$155,000 - Tablet Support

The engine already runs on mobile devices, but developing content for multiple platforms means lots of extra work. If we can reach this stretch goal, we would love to release Mr. Fiskers for iPads and Android tablets!

Justin Smith is the game's programmer, designer, and project lead. He also handles most of the game's sound effects, and helps with animation, special effects, and interface art.

Justin works as a programmer in Indianapolis, and build games on the side. His previous work includes Dillo Hills 2 (with JP and Chris!), which won 1st place in the PlayerIO EGA 2013 contest, and was one of Kongregate's top 10 games of 2013.

JP Tiangco is the game's artist, and is responsible for all the golems, enemies, levels, and a good deal of the UI and special effects.

Chris Hurn is a composer from Wellington. In addition to scoring commercials, short films, and other games, Chris worked with Justin and JP on Dillo Hills and Dillo Hills 2.

Our previous games have been funded through advertising, sponsorship, and in-app payments. There's not necessarily anything wrong with those methods, but they force us to do certain things with our games that we don't want to do with Mr. Fiskers, like put content behind paywalls, or pester our players with annoying ads and popups.

For Mr. Fiskers, we'd rather do things the old-fashioned way: you buy the game, and you get everything that it has to offer, uninterrupted. We don't want to lock essential elements of the game (like units, gadgets, or lawn mowers) behind a paywall.

Development

As you can see, the lion's share of the money raised through Kickstarter will go straight into content development. Finishing the game is obviously the most important part of the plan, and we've budgeted accordingly.

The engine is already built, which means most of the remaining work is simply adding content: new levels, enemies, gadgets, and boss fights. There's a lot left to do, but we're at the stage of development where the game's skeleton is already finished, and we're starting to add meat to it. That's the fun part!

Fees, Legal, and Taxes

Right off the bat, Kickstarter and Amazon take a cut of the funds raised. This usually works out to about 7-10% of the total contributions, but it's a small price to pay for getting the game funded.

After those fees are paid, we only need to set aside a little bit of the remaining money to cover legal fees and taxes. A lot of our legal expenses have already been taken care of from previous games, but we've allotted ourselves a legal budget, just in case anything unexpected comes up.

Licensing

A small part of the budget has been set aside for any licensed music, audio, art, or software needs that pop up over the course of development.

Again, we're really trying to minimize our expenses as much as we can, so that we can invest most of our time and money into the game itself. Almost all of the software we use is either free or already paid for, and as much as possible, we try to work with appropriately-licensed creative commons material when/if we need to use licensed audio.

Physical Rewards

We've also been very careful not to hamper ourselves with physical rewards that are disproportionately difficult to deliver, and we've budgeted accordingly.

Risks and challenges

Our team has a track record of working together to finish and release games, and we don't plan on breaking that streak any time soon. With that said, however, there are always risks.

The biggest risk for this project is scope creep / failure to meet deadlines. We've tried to maintain a very realistic goal accompanied by a realistic schedule, and we've given ourselves some padding time to compensate for unexpected delays. If everything goes really smoothly, we might even release ahead of schedule - but we don't want to make any promises.

The quality of the finished game is much more important to us than the deadline, and if we have to choose between the two, we will delay the game until it is completely finished, polished, and ready to enjoy.

If we meet our stretch goal for 1v1 multiplayer, it is likely that we will need to release it separately, a few months after the single-player campaign is finished. We have experience building multiplayer games, and we've learned that hiccups should always be anticipated, especially once we start playtesting and need to address balance issues.

In the event that multiplayer needs to be released after the main game, anyone who has purchased the game will be given access to beta testing events to help us playtest, balance, and improve the game.

Likewise, if we reach the stretch goal for tablet support, the tablet version may need to launch shortly after the desktop version.

FAQ

We would love to hit Linux! We need to sort through the tech details and make sure it's possible, though. We don't want to do any sketchy workarounds like forcing people to play through PepperFlash, etc.

If we can find a way to compile to a nice, clean package, we'll confirm Linux support. Just don't want to make any promises we can't keep!

Right now, the demo is always on the hardest setting. In the final game, the difficulty will automatically try to balance itself to meet your skill level, or you can manually tweak it until it feels just right for you! Regardless of your difficulty settings, challenges modes must always be played at full difficulty.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $28 or more
About $28

VIP: Access to private beta builds, a digital copy of the artbook / strategy guide, a digital copy of the soundtrack, early access to the finished game (via digital download), plus everything from the PATRON package.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $112 or more
About $112

BIG GAME HUNTER: Work with us to design an enemy that will appear throughout the game! Also includes everything from the CURATOR package, and you will be credited as a designer in the game. (If you would like to add the art book / strategy guide, please add $20 to your pledge.)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $224 or more
About $224

TINKERER: Work with us to design a gadget/weapon that will appear in the game! Also includes everything from the CURATOR package, and you will be credited as a designer in the game. (If you would like to add the art book / strategy guide, please add $20 to your pledge.)

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $650 or more
About $650

TIME LORD: Work with us to design a bonus level / minigame that will appear in the game! This includes the setting, a new enemy or two (which will also appear elsewhere throughout the game), a boss, and a gadget that will be given to the player if they 5-star the level on challenge mode. Also includes everything from the STRATEGIST package, and you will be credited as a designer in the game.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge $2,560 or more
About $2,560

MASTER ENGINEER: Work with us to design an entire secret zone that will appear in the game! Includes four levels and one bonus stage / minigame. Each level includes one or two new enemies, a cool level mechanic (or the gameplay mechanic, for the bonus stage), a boss fight, and challenges for each level. Plus, top it all off with a big boss fight at the end of the fifth level, and a gadget that the player will get for completing the entire zone! Your zone can all come from a single time period, or you can mix and match levels from all over the place. Also includes everything from the STRATEGIST package, our undying gratitude, and you will be credited as a designer in the game.